(01-13-2020 12:08 PM)tharmon15 Wrote:  Cincy would be good non Memphis candidates to give their opinion about the Liberty Bowl after being there back to back weeks.

Except Cincy only brought a couple hundred fans to have a hands on opinion.

There should be a 30k rule in the American. Your stadium needs the capacity if at least a small div 1 stadium. My gripe with Tulsa is that stadium looks high school size. I realize it is nice, but man that is a tiny stadium.

In before you complain about ucf....I'm not a fan of our chain link, metal, etc look. When full it is irrelevant though.

LOL. Worst stadium vote. Knew it was a matter of time. Nevermind that it will host the 2021 Super Bowl - 'it's the worst stadium in the entire conference!'

Lots of people are incapable of being rational when it comes to discussing college sports...

USFFan

(01-13-2020 10:51 AM)Once a Knight... Wrote:  

(01-13-2020 10:40 AM)e-parade Wrote:  This thread will lead to a campaign by Tulsa to invite UMass to the AAC solely so that they will no longer have the worst stadium in the AAC as deemed by this forum.

Haha... I have no ill-will towards Tulsa, and as a UCF fan plenty of respect especially after beating us in CCG games in C-USA in 2005 and 2012, while beating them in 2007. We also have never won a game at Tulsa (for whatever reason).

Nonethless, Tulsa has SOOOO much potential. Oklahoma is a rabid football state (can confirm since moving here 4 yrs ago). OU and OSU is everywhere, however, Tulsa is so far hidden on the radar most wouldn't even know they exist. Tulsa is a great city of almost 1 million people (metro area). Yes, I know Tulsa is a small private school, but they SHOULD/could be marketing themselves as "Tulsa's Team". Hell it's in the freaking name!! AAC isn't the Big 12, but very competitive and Tulsa fields a great schedule against storied and currently good/great teams. Playing Houston, Navy, Memphis, Tulane, and SMU every yr plus whatever OOC games (and cross-division AAC). Could certainly garner some interest. With that said, if they don't do SOMETHING to improve the stadium (maybe it's time to just tear it down and rebuild)? I'd argue there are high school stadiums (though smaller) in the area that are legitimately as good or better than Chapman Stadium. Broken Arrow H.S. comes to mind as one that I've been to personally and couldn't believe it was a h.s. stadium at all.

3-8 record aside, Tulsa has had great seasons before, and has been competitive in all their games each of the last two yrs at least. If they can do SOMETHING to separate themselves from (insert random small/private FBS school here), they could really make some noise and garner interest, but until they do more to market themselves and get support of their local area, they are going to continue to be doomed to irrelevance.

I went to HS at Broken Arrow. BA's stadium is nowhere near as nice as Tulsa's. I think you have some bias somewhere. BA's is an erector set similar to UCF's with no press box and a shite east side. TU's Club / Press box is way nicer than anything in the area (it was redone in 2005ish).

The biggest complaints for TU fans about the stadium are that the bathrooms desperately need updated and that some more tangential amenities like better scoreboards need to be added. People have also talked about wanting to do something about shading our East side of the stadium as it gets really hot in the early season. Besides that, I love Skelly (H.A. Chapman) it's got a pastoral atmosphere. I love our stonework on the stadium. It just feels like a different gameday atmosphere than any other game I've been to. I'd much prefer going to Tulsa's stadium than OU's for example. At OU you're hearded in like cattle through some janky wire fencing in the causeways. It's not hard to move around TU's stadium even when we have highly attended games.

My opinion would be that the school could update the East side of the stadium and redo the bathrooms / some of the tangential amenities. Besides that, it reminds me of going to a Notre Dame stadium game. Their stadium isn't the most up to date either, but they have a great atmosphere.

(01-13-2020 11:29 AM)ECUGrad07 Wrote:  Product on the field hasn't been good as of late... but hands down, Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium is the class of the American.

IDK - the " nipp at night" is hard to beat

(01-13-2020 11:35 AM)Once a Knight... Wrote:  

(01-13-2020 11:29 AM)ECUGrad07 Wrote:  Product on the field hasn't been good as of late... but hands down, Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium is the class of the American.

I've been to the ECU vs UCF games in 2009 and 2018, and it definitely is the largest, and a very clean stadium (and rockin when ECU is good!!), and I have no major issues with the stadium. I haven't actually walked around the stadium entirely, but does it have any open/patio areas (either covered or uncovered), in the way that Houston/Cincy have (if you or others have been there). I don't recall seeing them, and I think something like that (possibly at the top of the first level) would really enhance that stadium and experience. ECU in my opinion is easily in the Top 3 or 4 stadiums (non-NFL) in the conference.

It does not, which dates it a bit. I love the Fick, but would be interested to see some of the newer stadiums in the conference considering how impressed I was with ODU's tiny but brand friggin new stadium.

Hoping to make an excuse to take a work trip to Cindy for next year's game.

(01-13-2020 01:22 PM)CoastalJuan Wrote:  

(01-13-2020 11:35 AM)Once a Knight... Wrote:  

(01-13-2020 11:29 AM)ECUGrad07 Wrote:  Product on the field hasn't been good as of late... but hands down, Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium is the class of the American.

I've been to the ECU vs UCF games in 2009 and 2018, and it definitely is the largest, and a very clean stadium (and rockin when ECU is good!!), and I have no major issues with the stadium. I haven't actually walked around the stadium entirely, but does it have any open/patio areas (either covered or uncovered), in the way that Houston/Cincy have (if you or others have been there). I don't recall seeing them, and I think something like that (possibly at the top of the first level) would really enhance that stadium and experience. ECU in my opinion is easily in the Top 3 or 4 stadiums (non-NFL) in the conference.

It does not, which dates it a bit. I love the Fick, but would be interested to see some of the newer stadiums in the conference considering how impressed I was with ODU's tiny but brand friggin new stadium.

Hoping to make an excuse to take a work trip to Cindy for next year's game.

ODU was nice, but didn't even have bathrooms on the upstairs level.

(01-13-2020 01:31 PM)oasispirate Wrote:  

(01-13-2020 01:22 PM)CoastalJuan Wrote:  

(01-13-2020 11:35 AM)Once a Knight... Wrote:  

(01-13-2020 11:29 AM)ECUGrad07 Wrote:  Product on the field hasn't been good as of late... but hands down, Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium is the class of the American.

I've been to the ECU vs UCF games in 2009 and 2018, and it definitely is the largest, and a very clean stadium (and rockin when ECU is good!!), and I have no major issues with the stadium. I haven't actually walked around the stadium entirely, but does it have any open/patio areas (either covered or uncovered), in the way that Houston/Cincy have (if you or others have been there). I don't recall seeing them, and I think something like that (possibly at the top of the first level) would really enhance that stadium and experience. ECU in my opinion is easily in the Top 3 or 4 stadiums (non-NFL) in the conference.

It does not, which dates it a bit. I love the Fick, but would be interested to see some of the newer stadiums in the conference considering how impressed I was with ODU's tiny but brand friggin new stadium.

Hoping to make an excuse to take a work trip to Cindy for next year's game.

ODU was nice, but didn't even have bathrooms on the upstairs level.

Wait... what?

Nippert is one of the best soccer stadiums I have been to.

(01-13-2020 01:31 PM)oasispirate Wrote:  

(01-13-2020 01:22 PM)CoastalJuan Wrote:  

(01-13-2020 11:35 AM)Once a Knight... Wrote:  

(01-13-2020 11:29 AM)ECUGrad07 Wrote:  Product on the field hasn't been good as of late... but hands down, Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium is the class of the American.

I've been to the ECU vs UCF games in 2009 and 2018, and it definitely is the largest, and a very clean stadium (and rockin when ECU is good!!), and I have no major issues with the stadium. I haven't actually walked around the stadium entirely, but does it have any open/patio areas (either covered or uncovered), in the way that Houston/Cincy have (if you or others have been there). I don't recall seeing them, and I think something like that (possibly at the top of the first level) would really enhance that stadium and experience. ECU in my opinion is easily in the Top 3 or 4 stadiums (non-NFL) in the conference.

It does not, which dates it a bit. I love the Fick, but would be interested to see some of the newer stadiums in the conference considering how impressed I was with ODU's tiny but brand friggin new stadium.

Hoping to make an excuse to take a work trip to Cindy for next year's game.

ODU was nice, but didn't even have bathrooms on the upstairs level.

We don't really have them on that level either unless you're in the club. Their upper deck is basically the same as the upper levels of our lower section....that sounded confusing.

Unlike ODU, we have a true upper deck with a landing area and all that. But ODU's top level is like being in row AAA in Dowdy (top of lower bowl). If you're sitting there, you're also walking all the way down to pee.

(01-13-2020 11:29 AM)ECUGrad07 Wrote:  Product on the field hasn't been good as of late... but hands down, Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium is the class of the American.

ECU has made great strides to create a very nice stadium. I was at a game there around 2000 and thought at the time it looked like an overgrown HS stadium. Well done but I still think you guys have overbuilt.

Our capacity is fine. We average over 80% when we don't have back to back losing seasons. We've had multiple sell outs this decade. One break out year and we might be wishing for more.

Personally, I think if you are not the main occupant in the stadium, you should be excluded from polls like this. If Temple were playing in a dump NFL stadium (think Raiders pre-move, Redskins stadium, Qualcomm...) what could they even do to improve it? Give money to the owners to make upgrades?

Aside from UCF, I've been to Houston, Memphis, and Tulane (also usf, but again, see above) in conference. I've been meaning to make it to Cinci and ECU. Of the three I've visited Houston and Tulane were probably equal in terms of quality. Tulane's was more difficult to get to, but it was in a much more historic and prettier place than TDECU stadium. Tailgating at Tulane was better on the quad, but I imagine it would become a nightmare if they had the attendance of a large public school.

Memphis is tough for me to gauge; my only visit came during the 2018 deluge so things might have been muted. The stadium looked as good as it could be given the age, and it has a character to it that the new stadiums in Houston and NOLA do not have. Still, they had a top 25 team that had beaten them two previous times in their stadium on primetime television, and the stadium was just half full. UCF probably brought 5k and there were times we were louder than the home team. Not that Houston was any louder when I went there, but it was a 95 degree plus day without a cloud in sight in 2016. The luster of the opponent in UCF still had the stench of the 2015 team, so I don't blame them for being unexcited. The fans (Memphis) were a blast around us, and very hospitable albeit very talkative (in the ****-talking manner), congratulatory afterwards too. Tulane, for it's size, I would say had the most involved fans. There weren't many of them, but you could tell they wanted to be there.


All in all, each stadium brings their own qualities. If I had to pick a top 3 from the ones I've been to, i'd say

1. Memphis
2. Tulane
3. Houston

I was such a fan of Nippert Stadium that I became a fan of the team, true story. As a Miami Student, I came and watched Big Ben beat up Gino at the Nip. I've been coming back ever sense.

I've been to the Liberty bowl. It was alright. I think that's the only away stadium I've been to. The NFL stadiums get the biggest thumbs downs from me. NCAA games shouldn't be played in NFL stadiums, in my opinion.

(01-13-2020 12:47 PM)usffan Wrote:  LOL. Worst stadium vote. Knew it was a matter of time. Nevermind that it will host the 2021 Super Bowl - 'it's the worst stadium in the entire conference!'

Lots of people are incapable of being rational when it comes to discussing college sports...

USFFan

You received two votes. R-e-l-a-x.

(01-13-2020 01:42 PM)Pony94 Wrote:  Nippert is one of the best soccer stadiums I have been to.

"Pitch"

The correct term is "Pitch."

As in "Nippert is one of the best soccer pitches I have ever been to."

And...yes. Yes it is.

Cincinnati looks cool being really tight. Stadium even looks bigger than the capacity. Never been but it looks cool. Kind of like the Cubs stadium for cfb. Tulane has an awesome stadium. A little better attendance and Tulane has it going. ECUs looks big time when full. Hopefully that will happen soon. Houston stadium looks sharp. Ucfs just from an overall fan experience is good. Fireworks, noise, near capacity normally (lately), etc. NFL stadiums not a fan for college. Memphis I haven't seen since the upgrades. In 2007 it reminded me of the Citrus Bowl...pre redesign.

(01-13-2020 02:42 PM)BearcatJerry Wrote:  

(01-13-2020 01:42 PM)Pony94 Wrote:  Nippert is one of the best soccer stadiums I have been to.

"Pitch"

The correct term is "Pitch."

As in "Nippert is one of the best soccer pitches I have ever been to."

And...yes. Yes it is.

I always assumed pitch meant the actual field. Hate soccer in general.

(01-13-2020 01:56 PM)TexanMark Wrote:  

(01-13-2020 11:29 AM)ECUGrad07 Wrote:  Product on the field hasn't been good as of late... but hands down, Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium is the class of the American.

ECU has made great strides to create a very nice stadium. I was at a game there around 2000 and thought at the time it looked like an overgrown HS stadium. Well done but I still think you guys have overbuilt.

It would've been 43,000 then, the upper deck with the club level would've been relatively new as well as a new scoreboard for that era.

I can remember if our strength and conditioning center in the endzone had broken ground yet or not.

So basically since then we added bowled in endzone, new scoreboard, and the new pressbox club level.

(01-13-2020 10:43 AM)Foreverandever Wrote:  

(01-13-2020 10:40 AM)e-parade Wrote:  This thread will lead to a campaign by Tulsa to invite UMass to the AAC solely so that they will no longer have the worst stadium in the AAC as deemed by this forum.

Are you new to this forum?

Tulsa will most assuredly finish last no matter who else is put up.

Not new, no. But you might not know how bad of a stadium we have. 17000 capacity and got great new amenities this year like "bathrooms in the stadium...at all."